Major General Horatio G. Wright deployed the 14,000 attackers of his Sixth Corps in a wedge-shaped formation across a battle front extending nearly a mile, with the point of the wedge here held by the Vermont Brigade under Brigadier General Lewis A. Grant. About 2,200 Vermonters stepped out at 4:40 a.m. to lead the assault, their left flank hugging the ravine, while the rest of the Sixth Corps formed to their left and right but somewhat behind them. At the sound of a signal gun, the entire Sixth Corps rose and moved forward through misty darkness, heard as “like a strong breeze blowing through the swaying boughs and dense foliage of some great forest.” The new Confederate picket line fell quickly, but the Confederates behind the main line of fortifications soon recognized the attack, and the earthworks erupted with rifle and cannon fire across the open field.